January27th
I love shooting in the rain. If it’s a weekend and it’s raining, you’ll probably see me with an umbrella on one hand, and my camera on the other, walking (sometimes running) around Orchard Road taking photos of strangers as they run from one mall to another. Often times, it’s an adrenaline rush for me. As it turns out, the same can be said to the ones on the other side of the lens.
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September7th
Just recently, I had the opportunity to experience a 3-day intensive photo essay workshop organized by Leica, conducted by famed Magnum photographer, Abbas. I’ve learned about it on short notice, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet and learn from a master who’s been doing it for 45 years.
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August30th
Stranger #77 was one of the most strikingly beautiful face I’ve photographed in my Portraits of Strangers project. So when I decided to do this “Strangers Revisited” project, she was an obvious choice. And when Atika agreed to do a photo shoot with me, I was so ecstatic yet pretty nervous at the same time.
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August9th
I’ve always wanted to dive into portraiture, and my previous Portraits of Strangers project served as my personal transition from candid street shooting to portraiture. Looking back at project, I later decided to create a new series of photo shoots by revisiting some of the strangers I photographed. Thanks to my facebook page, I was able to contact some of them.
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August1st
A couple of months ago, I was invited to join the Adobe Influencer Program where I get to connect with folks from Adobe as well as other creative professionals and enthusiasts. One of the perks of being in this group is getting access to their latest releases for review – I was offered the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5. Being a web designer and photographer, I chose the Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium which includes the latest version of Photoshop. After a couple of weeks of using this, and playing around with its sexy new features, this is my review.
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June23rd
A few days ago, I got an email from friend and blogger David Lee Tong saying someone just accused me of photo theft! On the comments section of his blog where he feature me in the past, this guy claimed I stole his friend’s photo – that of 2 girls running barefoot in the rain. He further stated that his friend has the original raw file to prove it, ending with the words “danny is a copycat.”
I was shocked beyond belief.
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June17th
Photo above taken by photography hobbyist Paulo Legaspi
About a month ago, I was invited by street photographer Eric Kim to be a guest writer for his blog. He wanted me to write a few tips on shooting street portraits. Although I’ve already blogged about my thoughts and experiences while working on my Portraits of Strangers project, I haven’t really provided any direct tips on how to work on a project like this. So I started writing down a few quick tips based on what worked for me. I’d like to share this article with you guys. Hope this helps :)
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February28th
I love shooting strangers under bad weather. And for a while now, I’ve always wondered how it would be to shoot bad weather at night. I could only imagine how dramatic the shots could be with the combination of heavy rain and the night lights. Just a few nights ago, I’ve had the chance to do just that.
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January31st
While I was working on my Portraits of Strangers project last year, I got an email with the subject: “Hey there… a mail from Ad-Land in Singapore.” Much to my surprise, the email was from Steve Elrick, Regional Executive Creative Director of BBH Asia Pacific. He came across my portraits series from a link in Facebook which lead back to my blog. He asked if I could drop by to have a chat and “see if there’s a project we could perhaps get you involved with in the future.”
I went “holy sh*t…”
December21st
Every time I’m out in the streets, I would often encounter faces that make me look twice… faces that just stood out of the crowd without even trying… faces that are by no means ordinary. They range from the exquisitely beautiful to the strangely wonderful. Sometimes I would try to steal a shot without being too intrusive, most times I just stand there wishing I had the balls to just approach them and ask for their portrait. Thanks to my lucky stars … I eventually grew those balls to do so.
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October11th
Just got featured in Singapore’s August Man magazine in their annual photography issue. They asked me to pick one of my street photographs and say a few words about it … and I happily obliged. Of course I chose the rain shot I took of the lady with the shawl walking in the rain smiling, which I also featured as my ‘Keeper of the Month’ last May. I’m so excited about this feature. I actually didn’t expect that it would take a whole page :) Big big thanks, Ci’en! :)
August Man is a Singapore-based men’s magazine that features all things cool. As they say, it’s “Singapore’s Definitive Men’s Journal” Check out my feature in page 176 ;)
August23rd
Henri Cartier-Bresson is the father of modern photojournalism and widely revered as the pioneer for the art of street photography. I was watching one of his documentaries and one of his quote struck me; referring to his timeless street photographs, he said “It’s always luck. It’s luck that matters. You just have to be receptive, that’s all.” Nothing can be more true about street photography. Of the 2 short years that I’ve shot in the streets of Singapore, I do not deny how luck dictates if I get a keeper or not. No matter how good a photographer you are, if lady luck is not on your side, you will end up capturing boringly normal street scenes that we can all see everyday anyway.
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July15th
I was recently interviewed by SlashMaraud, a blog based in Boston. One of the questions was “What are some unwritten rules of street photography according to Danny Santos?” Well, my answers were really more like tips than rules, and they’re not according to me but more like stuff that you will just learn eventually the longer you shoot. I decided to share my answers here and expand further. There are a lot more useful tips you can find online, but I believe these 5 tips is a good place to start with. So here goes…
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June17th
I’ve been recieving emails from fellow hobbyists asking me questions on how I do my stuff. I always try to answer each of them promptly, but I noticed that I often get the same questions and I answer the same answers. So I figured I should just write it all down here. So here goes…
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May27th
One of the reasons I love shooting in Orchard Road is that it’s teeming with good-looking people frequently walking around, almost strutting… especially on the weekends. Even with relatively modest getups, the air of confidence is often noticeable from their head-turning allure down to their subtle swagger. Early on in my candid shooting exploits, it was this crowd that I wanted to capture.
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April28th
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people tell me “You’re camera takes great photos!” It really irks me every time I hear that. It’s like cooking a delicious gourmet meal and your guests complement the stove, or completing a 42k marathon and your friends think it’s because you wore great shoes, or writing a bestseller and your peers think your macbook pro had something to do with it. The fact is, it takes so much more than just a ‘great tool’ to produce great outcome.
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April2nd
I’ve been shooting street for almost 2 years now, and looking back at all my “keeper” shots, the feeling when I took each and every one of these photographs is still pretty vivid in my mind. I may not remember the settings for the camera, but the thought process I had at the moment of the shutter click I can still recall. And every time I browse back to these old shots, there’s always this one photo that’s special to me. This was my first good street photograph – the first one that didn’t look like an ordinary snapshot – the one where I thought to myself “Hey, I can do this thing.”
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March31st
I’ve just recently been added by streephers.com to their list of notable Photo Reporters and Street Photographers around the world. Most of the photographers showcased there are from Europe. A lot is from Italy and Greece. I’m the only one from Singapore… at least for now :)
I’m humbled and honored to be a part of a list that includes some of today’s street photography greats that I hold in high regard such as Lukas Vasilikos, Charalambos Kydonakis, Fabrizio Quaglluso, and Guido Steenkamp. You guys should check their work as well as all the other photographers in the list. It’s quite an eye opener!
March28th
I’m a weekend photographer, and I used to always stay at home and sulk whenever it rains on a weekend. I figured: the light’s no good, my gear could get wet, and the streets would be empty. There wouldn’t be anything worth shooting. I’d complain in the forums whenever a weekend goes by and it’s raining all afternoon. Until someone replied and suggested “why not shoot in the rain and see what you come up with?” I paused and figured “hmmm, why not?”
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March22nd
When I got my first DSLR last June 2008, I slowly realized that I had no idea what I wanted to shoot… I just knew that I wanted to shoot. So I shot just about anything and everything, from stray cats on the streets to early morning sunrises in our neighbouring reservoir. But when I discovered the genre of candid street portraiture in Flickr from guys like Bradford Kim (LA), Hoa Quach (London), and Alfie Goodrich (Tokyo), I had an epiphany – this is what I wanted to do. Photographing people in the streets as if they were walking in a fashion runway immediately appealed to me.
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Danny Santos II is a weekend photographer who likes to shoot strangers in the streets of Singapore. He's been shooting street since mid 2008. By trade a graphic designer, he's been working in the creatives industry for over 10 years.
